Quality improvement initiatives in the United States have led to a substantial reduction in the number of patients being harmed by their hospital care and in the rates of readmission within 30 days of discharge, concludes a new report from the US Department of Health and Human Services.1

A mystery virus known as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) has claimed an increasing number of lives in Saudi Arabia, where fear of the condition is growing, as the BBC's Gulf correspondent Mark Lobel reports from Dubai.

Worldwide, 3.3 million deaths in 2012 were due to harmful use of alcohol, says a new report launched by WHO today. Alcohol consumption can not only lead to dependence but also increases people’s risk of developing more than 200 diseases including liver cirrhosis and some cancers. In addition, harmful drinking can lead to violence and injuries.

People in the United States are living longer and are consuming more prescription drugs than ever before, an annual report on the nation’s health prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found.1

This week our sister journal BMJ Open publishes a report of a trial that was stopped early in 1993 and was never published.1 The report, by Tom Treasure and colleagues, is one of the first outputs of the “restoring invisible and abandoned trials” (RIAT) initiative, launched in an article in The BMJ last year.2 And in this week’s journal Treasure and colleagues tell us the story of the trial, what its abandonment meant for the way clinical practice developed in the intervening years, and what its restored findings mean today.3

This week our sister journal BMJ Open publishes a report of a trial that was stopped early in 1993 and was never published.1 The report, by Tom Treasure and colleagues, is one of the first outputs of the “restoring invisible and abandoned trials” (RIAT) initiative, launched in an article in The BMJ last year.2 And in this week’s journal Treasure and colleagues tell us the story of the trial, what its abandonment meant for the way clinical practice developed in the intervening years, and what its restored findings mean today.3

This week our sister journal BMJ Open publishes a report of a trial that was stopped early in 1993 and was never published.1 The report, by Tom Treasure and colleagues, is one of the first outputs of the “restoring invisible and abandoned trials” (RIAT) initiative, launched in an article in The BMJ last year.2 And in this week’s journal Treasure and colleagues tell us the story of the trial, what its abandonment meant for the way clinical practice developed in the intervening years, and what its restored findings mean today.3

WHO's "Health for the world’s adolescents" report reveals that depression is the predominant cause of illness and disability for both boys and girls aged 10 to 19 years. The top 3 causes of adolescent deaths globally are road traffic injuries, HIV/AIDS, and suicide. Worldwide, an estimated 1.3 million adolescents died in 2012.

This report describes how six trusts have been grappling with the productivity challenge. It also suggests ways to divert the NHS and social care from their current trajectory, which is heading towards a major crisis. The unprecedented slowdown in the growth of NHS funding in England since 2010 required the NHS to pursue the most ambitious programme of productivity improvement since its foundation. It has broadly risen to the challenge, with pay restraint, cuts in central budgets, and the abolition of some tiers of management producing significant savings. But the strongest pressure has been applied and felt at the front line, by hospitals and other local service providers, faced with squeezing more and more value from every health care pound.

Our fragmented health and care system is not meeting the needs of older people. This report sets out a framework and tools to help local service leaders improve the care they provide for older people across nine key components. Our fragmented health and care system is not meeting the needs of older people, who are most likely to suffer problems with co-ordination of care and delays in transitions between services. This report sets out a framework and tools to help local service leaders improve the care they provide for older people across nine key components.

Our report argues for a new approach that brings together funding for general practice with funding for many other services. This would entail new forms of commissioning, with GPs innovating in how care is delivered. As England’s population both expands and ages, so the demands on primary care will grow. Within the current commissioning and funding system innovative models of primary care provision are already being used. This report describes examples of these through four case studies in different areas of England. It also highlights how the existing system is imperfectly understood, particularly regarding contracts.